Music
A Successful New Sound
Five men emerged from the haze at the back of the stage. Stepping forward, each took his place—a drummer, two guitarists, a bassist, and the lead vocalist at the front. Jesse Rutherford picked up the microphone and held it to his pursed lips with a serious expression, as if about to rap. The guitarist began [...]
Father And Daughter: An Interview with Garland Jeffreys
I’m certain that many of you have either befriended, become acquainted with or heard the name Savannah Jeffreys spoken around the halls of Stuy. To some of you she is just another fellow student in the mass of students that is Stuyvesant High School. Savannah is quite an accomplished musician. She’s played and recorded her [...]
A New Riot Grrrl
In recent years, numerous piano-playing songstresses have wowed audiences with their quirky lyrics, gentle instrumentals, and pleasingly pretty voices. Recorded when she was 20 years old, Kate Nash’s debut album “Made of Bricks” was largely in this vein, featuring catchy, beat-heavy tunes with snarky lyrics that showcased Nash’s vocal talents but only hinted at a [...]
Same Show, Different Tune
Admit it: the acting is going downhill, the actors aren’t nearly as attractive as they used to be, and the plot is getting ridiculous. But despite these faults, so many of us continue to watch the same television shows season after season. Perhaps we are—or at least, I am—returning to these shows we loved months [...]
An Indie Magpie Wants to Dance
He wears glittery outfits at live shows. His voice soars high into falsetto. His videos are peppered with bright colors and cartoony graphics. Mika, a British singer-songwriter, is a musical magpie. In his third studio album “The Origin of Love,” Mika sheds some of his childlike camp for a timelier dance-pop vibe; however, in doing [...]
Fresh Picks: Hiatus Kaiyote’s “Tawk Tomahawk”
My friend introduced Hiatus Kaiyote to me as the halfway point between the beat-heaviness of neo-soul/hip-hop producer J Dilla and the soulful vocals of Amy Winehouse, and he wasn’t far off. Paired with the band’s head-turning name (pronounced with Australian accents), the musical project is bound to generate lots of buzz–and that’s exactly what has [...]
There’s A Nice View from the Cheap Seats
Wikipedia calls her “anti-folk” and “baroque pop,” “indie rock,” “blues,” and “pop,” but how exactly does one categorize a Russian-born, New York City-bred pianist and singer-songwriter who whispers a lullaby one moment and sways over lyrics faster than thoughts the next? In Regina Spektor’s newest album, “What We Saw from the Cheap Seats,” released May [...]
An Interview With A Forgotten Man Who Can’t Forget
Danny Kalb is not a musician known by the masses, but he is considered by many acclaimed critics and music buffs to be one of America’s most defining guitar players of his generation. When I went to interview Kalb in his tiny apartment in Park Slope, I expected a larger-than-life character to greet me [...]
Old Guys, New Albums
In September of last year, Bruce Springsteen joined his fellow Rock-and-Roll Hall of Famer Paul McCartney as a Social Security recipient. Coincidentally, this past month, these two legends both released new albums. For Bruce, it has been little over two years since his release of “Working on a Dream” in 2009. As for the remaining [...]
Obscenities From The Heart: Odd Future Live at the Hammerstein Ballroom
Odd Future, or Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, as they are more formally known, is perhaps one of the more unusual rap collectives to emerge in recent years. Many would be quick to draw comparisons to the infamous Wu Tang Clan, but Odd Future is a whole other animal: angry and aggressive, the [...]
